


what a time to be alive

by arcanawildcard, clairelutra



Series: Shuann Week 2020 [4]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Identity Porn, Social Media, YouTube
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23554732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcanawildcard/pseuds/arcanawildcard, https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairelutra/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: Ann found him because she and Shiho were joking about knives. She was about to do an FAQ for her ten thousand subscriber mark, and they were sorting out her answers.If Ann could dateanyother Youtuber, who would it be? Joker, mega-hot lead of Phantom Thieves Choreography.The video she was proudest of? 'The Art of Saying No', for how much growth it took her to get there.How had Shiho gotten her guns? Lots andlotsof volleyball.Advice for vloggers just starting up? Be expressive, vlog about the things you're interested in, and on.One of the questions she'd received was about what Ann's dark secret was, and Shiho had joked that maybe she carried a knife around—like one of these, yknow?And then she'd linked Ann to a knife review by Arsene.Somewhere between the first sound of his low, smooth, hypnotic voice and the third affectionate jab at an 16th century French poet, Ann was caught hook, line, and sinker.A Youtuber AUON HIATUS
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Takamaki Ann, Kurusu Akira/Takamaki Ann, Persona 5 Protagonist/Takamaki Ann
Series: Shuann Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692796
Comments: 17
Kudos: 93





	what a time to be alive

**Author's Note:**

> SO it be [shuann week](https://shuannweek.tumblr.com/).
> 
> i was gonna try to participate normally, but never in my life have i successfully participated in any ship week, SO INSTEAD: i'm clearing out (or trying to clear out) my fairly sizeable backlog of drafts that languish in partial-completeness hell.
> 
> one day... one day i'll get back to weekly updates. lol.
> 
> ...i don't even watch youtubers ._.;;

Ann found him because she and Shiho were joking about knives. She was about to do an FAQ for her ten thousand subscriber mark, and they were sorting out her answers.

If Ann could date _any_ other Youtuber, who would it be? Joker, mega-hot lead of Phantom Thieves Choreography.

The video she was proudest of? 'The Art of Saying No', for how much growth it took her to get there.

How had Shiho gotten her guns? Lots and _lots_ of volleyball.

Advice for vloggers just starting up? Be expressive, vlog about the things you're interested in, and on.

One of the questions she'd received was about what Ann's dark secret was, and Shiho had joked that maybe she carried a knife around— _like one of these, yknow?_

And then she'd linked Ann to a knife review by Arsene.

Somewhere between the first sound of his low, smooth, hypnotic voice and the third affectionate jab at an 16th century French poet, Ann was caught hook, line, and sinker.

She ended up going back to his very first video—it was a tutorial on kitchen knife upkeep; awkward, with notably lower audio and camera quality, and containing no references to esoteric historical figures, affectionate or otherwise, but his voice was still dry and warm, matching gentle humor with careful hands.

She ended up playing them all in order, smiling a little more with each new discovery.

Heirloom knife revivals, model gun customization, lockpick tutorials (both the making of and the using of), all with a running commentary of highly suspect you-didn't-hear-it-from-me-but advice about breaking and entering, memes as applied to 19th century opera, and the odd scathing analysis of the corruption of the state.

It was strangely, _potently_ relaxing.

 _Now, in the comments on my last video, I was accused of attraction to Carmen, of Mérimée fame,_ chased Ann to the edge of consciousness, the quiet irony rendering him inscrutable. _I would like to both confirm and deny. I have, of course, been madly in love with Carmen since her debut back in 1845. To call it 'attraction' is, quite frankly, insulting. I would prefer you didn't take my heart so lightly._

Ann, having named her own channel after Carmen, fell asleep with a glow of kinship joining the tug of heat in her gut.

* * *

The next day, sitting in front of her camera for her video ('Girl Talk with Sweet Carmine!'), she sheepishly admitted that her deep dark secret was that she actually couldn't _stand_ dark chocolate.

Shiho kicked her chair leg and told her that was cheating.

"Okay, fine, hit me again," Ann conceded, as per the script, cracking her knuckles and stretching her shoulders.

"This commenter asks... 'If you could date _any_ other Youtuber, who would it be?'"

She had an answer lined up for this, she _knew,_ but the exact name they'd decided on was slipping her mind when all she could hear was that warm, velvety purr talking about metal alloys and whetstone grades, and what ended up coming out of her mouth was: "...Arsene."

 _"Arsene?"_ Shiho demanded incredulously.

"You know, the knife guy?"

"I thought you said it was _Joker_ —?!"

Oh.

That was the guy. _Oops._

Time to roll with it.

"Look, I know Joker is _totally hot_ and all—we're talking about the Phantom Thieves guy, by the way—but Arsene's _voice_..." She giggled and sighed and swooned onto the table, and it was only partially for effect. "I could listen to him talk forever..."

Next to her, Shiho facepalmed. "I link you _one_ video..."

"It _was_ a pretty great video. I ended up watching a ton of the rest, too."

"You don't even know what he looks like," Shiho groaned, reaching for her water bottle.

It hadn't occurred to Ann before that moment, but... huh. He hadn't shown his face in _any_ of the videos, had he?

He just... sounded like someone she wanted to spend time around.

"I mean, I've seen his hands," she said defensively, because that answer was _definitely_ too personal for ten thousand subscribers. Then she pushed herself up with a purring groan and a little grin. "And, I mean, you've _seen_ those hands, right?"

Shiho choked on her recently-swallowed water. _"Ann, oh my god."_

Ann blinked. "What?"

"Oh my god!" Shiho managed through the spluttering, flapping a hand in front of her face. "We're supposed to keep this PG!"

Processing, processing, processing...

Oh.

"No!" Ann squeaked, face on _fire._ "Nononono! _That's not what I meant!"_

But Shiho had devolved from choking into snickering-while-choking, and Ann leaned over and thumped her back harder than she might have otherwise.

"What I _meant_ is that they're very nice hands and that he's very— very dexter— wait. _Wait."_

Shiho wheezed wordlessly.

"He has forty-three videos where he just— just _pets knives,_ okay? It's really hard not to notice his hands!"

Shiho caught her breath and raised her eyebrows at the camera with a sly little smile, and Ann groaned and buried her face in her hands.

"Okay, can we move on now?"

Shiho snorted but complied.

* * *

> **Totally Not Medjed** _5 hours ago_  
>  Arsene dont ask but u TOTES need to check out the channel Sweet Carmine :3  
>  👍 35 👎 **REPLY**

It was the thirty five upvotes that sparked Akira's curiosity. He probably would have given it a cursory once-over anyway (because it was Futaba), but the upvotes were just _odd._ Why did those thirty five people care, anyway?

Searching the name revealed the _girliest_ channel Akira had _ever seen._

Candy reviews, hair and makeup tutorials, outfit modeling and trend critiques, some more general (very _pink_ -looking) vlogs...

Thumbing through the uploads page, he wondered why the _hell_ Futaba had sent him here. Hair tutorials? Sometimes she wanted to dress up and he was better with hair than she was, so maybe... but that didn't explain the thirty five upvotes.

He picked a video at semi-random—she was cute and there was one where she was modeling bathing suits, so that seemed like a decent place to start—and was rapidly sucked down the rabbit hole.

By the end of that video, he was shifting in his seat and hot under the collar (he'd never really had a thing for busty blondes but that flirty confidence and sweet giggle was _doing things_ to him), and by the end of the next, he had a hand clamped over his mouth to fight down the grin (she was an _adorable dork_ and he was in no way, shape, or form immune to the sheer warmth she gave off). The third video was all it took for him to add her to his incredibly short list of subscriptions and even shorter list of alerts.

Somewhere between 'The Art of Saying No' and her fifth consecutive glowing review of a convenience store pudding, Akira had entirely forgotten why he was there in the first place. Time, too, was slipping away from him at what would have been an alarming pace if he'd noticed it at all. She was _hypnotic._

He was about five videos from the end of her 'all videos' playlist when he found it.

'It' being a four minute rant on the sin of sour candy.

_"Just— it's candy! It's sweet! Candy is sweet! This isn't candy! How dare they—?! I want a refund!"_

He was ashamed to admit that he laughed until he cried.

He was only slightly less ashamed that he forsook the last five videos in favor of putting the rant on loop for another half hour, which was the point at which Sojiro got home with Futaba and Akira had to put down the evidence in a hurry or risk the consequences at the hands of his adoptive family (mocking and blackmail).

He went to bed early in hopes of getting enough sleep to survive dance practice tomorrow (Margaret was directing this time and Margaret could get _brutal_ ), and still spent a little too long muffling snickers into his pillow.

_Sweet Carmine versus the packet of Sour Skittles._

_Fuck,_ she was cute.

**Author's Note:**

> this is one of the only fics i don't have a solid Plan for, just a whole lot of brainstorming with [brainbuddy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaRuX) over here.
> 
> some general thoughts:  
> \- ann and akira continue to stalk each other's channels with vague hints of the fact that they're Aware of each other (arsene eating candy that sweet carmine reviewed recently, sweet carmine being suddenly much more knowledgeable in history)  
> \- all the PTs except ann are a part of phantom thieves choreography  
> \- the girls (futaba/makoto/haru) have a joint let's play channel on the side  
> \- ryuji has a channel where he does stupid shit 'for science'  
> \- yusuke, of course, does speedpaints  
> \- ann mentions that she 'always keeps a knife in her purse, you know, in case of cheesecake' and akira gifts her a Very Girly knife he made from scratch, 'in case of cheesecake' (that she shows off to the point it becomes a meme), and she makes him a phone strap in return (that he uses ever after)  
> \- vidcon happens at some point  
> \- idk this whole thing was inspired by 'come my way' by plvtinum and the image of akira dance-flirting with ann, who's standing in the audience, and shiho posting a vid to twitter afterwards that has ann doing the squeaky flail thing into her bed, captioned 'i think @PhantomThievesStudio Joker broke her lol'  
> \- there are like three different ways joker/arsene's identity could come out and idk which one to use  
> \- arsene hides his face because he's sick of comments on his hair _yes he brushes it regularly, go away_


End file.
